About Josh Pennington

Web developer, tech junkie and Doctor Who aficionado. I've been professionally programming since 2007 but have been passionate about technology since childhood. Specialties include PHP / Zend Framework, but am also experienced with Java, Ruby, Rails and a variety of other languages.

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Why Am I Cutting The Cord

I find that I ask myself this question quite often. Why should I cut the cord?

This transition is turning out to be a lot of work on my part. In the end I will probably confuse my wife as I will have to teach her to watch TV again now that the convenient grid is gone. A lot of time has been invested in making plans and trying to find the perfect combination of software that will work. Why would I put myself through this? My primary motivating factor here is money. Watching my TV bill go up over the years has been tough. I don’t want to imply that I cannot afford TV. Rather that I do not see the money I spend on TV as being a good value.

The money I am currently spending on TV does not go toward the content that I want to watch. You may not know this, but roughly half of the money you pay toward your cable or satellite company goes towards sports programming (source). Half? I am not what you would call a sports fan. In fact, I watch exactly one sports event a year (Super Bowl). This really plays into how I do not perceive cable as a good value. If $600 of the $1200 I spend a year on TV goes toward something I don’t watch, then why should I pay for it? I don’t even want to think about how much of the remaining $600 goes to other channels that I could care less about.

The other motivating factor I have is flexibility. In 2013, does it not feel a little archaic that can only watch a show on it’s specified day and time? If I miss it, I will get exactly one chance to watch it, if I can remember to watch it in the summer? DVR’s solved this to a certain extent, but it is still not quite where it needs to be. I should be able to watch the show, at the time and place of my choosing after it has been released.

The final reason is that I really needed a hobby 🙂 and this is the future of entertainment. Eventually your internet service will just be a dumb pipe for all your video needs.